Mother killed trying to help her daughter

Jocelyn Thrash was shot and killed yesterday morning when she did what most any mother would do, her Madrona neighbors said: She died trying to protect her child.

Witnesses said Thrash's older daughter had been arguing with a boyfriend on the sidewalk at the corner of East Marion Street and 32nd Avenue - a block behind Thrash's 33rd Avenue home - when the man shoved Thrash's daughter to the ground.

"Jocelyn just went over to pick her up and protect her, like anyone would do, and he shot her," said neighbor Pat Wright, who went outside when she heard the shots - five or so - in quick succession.

Wright, founder and director of Seattle's Total Experience Gospel Choir, said Thrash's daughter fled down the street shouting hysterically, "It's all my fault. It's all my fault. My boyfriend shot my mother."

Several neighbors said the man then stood at the corner immobile, as if in shock, then cut across a lawn, got into his car and sped away.

Police would not confirm that a boyfriend is the suspect but they did say they are looking for a particular individual, who was not yet in custody.

Thrash, 45 and a home-health nurse who was to marry next week, bought the century-old house about eight years ago when it was dilapidated and overgrown. She renovated it and labored in the garden until it was a neighborhood showpiece.

She planted roses, bachelor buttons, Shasta daisies, moonbeam coreopsis and sweet William.

Neighbors said that to honor her, they would plant something beautiful in the park across the street from her house.

"She was one of the most wonderful people in the neighborhood," said Raul Mustelier. "Day after day, we'd see her in her garden with her beautiful, smiling face. We've got to plant something for her."

Thrash's older daughter, with her 3-month-old daughter, had moved back in with Thrash several weeks ago when she broke up with her boyfriend. Neighbors said the boyfriend came around, in the yard but not in the house, trying to reconcile with Thrash's older daughter.

Thrash's younger daughter had just been accepted to Columbia University School of Medicine in New York. After Thrash's wedding, the whole family planned to vacation in New York and help the younger girl get settled.

"They were looking forward to that," said Wright.

A little more than a year ago, sisters Beatrice Kay Franklin, 44, and Theresa Ann Franklin, 43, were shot to death in their Madrona home one block away in a case that has not been solved.

Christine Clarridge's phone message number is 206-464-8983. Her e-mail address is: cclarridge@seattletimes.com.